There is a lot of noise about Microsoft opening up much of its documentation. It is said that Open Source developers are free to use this documentation. It is only for people and organisations that are paid for delivering or supporting the resulting software that a license fee is to be paid.
The way I understand the GPL license, this is not allowed. When software is available under the GPL it is explicitly permitted to sell services for this software. In my understanding this is an other case of smoke and mirrors. When this new documentation is available for people writing software that is licensed under the GPL, Microsoft cannot claim license fees down stream. OR people are not permitted to make software that is encumbered in this way available under a free license.
With more software being used that does not consider Microsoft's software, it will become increasingly problematic for Microsoft to support its customers. I think that Microsoft's objective is to gain free support for its products.
How long will it take for people to come to the same conclusion ? :) PS I am not a lawyer :)
Thanks,
GerardM
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